Girls Benefit from Family Meals Minnesota researchers say the regularity and quality of family meals has an impact on preventing eating disorders in girls.
The University of Minnesota team has found the significance, structure, and atmosphere of family meals may help guide adolescent girls away from developing eating disorders. It was shown that girls who ate recurring family meals in a structured and positive environment were less probable to exhibit extreme weight control behaviors, such as diet pill use, vomiting and chronic dieting.
The meal itself provides an opportunity to model healthy eating habits to children, and it also gives parents the chance to talk with their children.
The study revealed that:
1. Girls who ate three to four family meals per week were at about one-third the risk for extreme weight control practices.
2. Girls who ate five family meals per week were at about one-fourth the risk for extreme weight control practices.
3. Boys also benefit from family meals, but the association was not as strong as it is for girls.
This study found what common sense knew all along.
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